I guess sampling gives you limitless sounds. It's not something I've played with.
I attended an interview with Jarre a few years ago. I've enjoyed his music for a long time and he's had an amazing career. I expect he had to invent instruments to get the results he wanted in the early days.
I may have mentioned before that I photographed him in concert about a decade ago. The interview must have been really interesting. I know he has worked a lot with Roland in the past but back in the early days used Fairlight, ARP, Sequential and of course Moog to name but a few. When I saw him in concert at Docklands (1987 I think and not the time I photographed him, I was at Sixth Form in 87) he had a custom arc shaped keyboard with massive keys that lit up!
I've not seen him in concert, but I know his shows are spectacular. He was talking in the interview about playing to millions of people in Moscow! When you are just playing a keyboard you need to add something to make it visually interesting.
I was just reading about the Docklands gig. I think I was in Germany then.
That's the thing, singers, guitarists and drummers... for starters, other musicians are available... have plenty of tools at their disposal to appear more charismatic and entertaining, whereas a guy behind a keyboard stack, computer or huge analog modular synth might be a bit hidden from view... or have their back to the audience, which is somewhat awkward!